A mate at work just showed me this demonstration of surround sound using stereo headphones. When it first started playing, I actually looked behind me because I though somebody in the room had knocked something over.

I assume that this will only have the intended effect if you listen to it through headphones. Makes me wish Valve had this as part of the Source engine, it's sure as hell make Left 4 Dead more immersive.

Download the MP3.

http://qgl.ausforums.com/index.php/439207/?agn=thread&id=2623515

:)

Ugh, damn it, I searched QGL for Virtual Barbershop.

it's sure as hell make Left 4 Dead more immersive.

That would take forever to playback each sound sample (there are hundreds for each game) in real life and record with dual-microphones at a large number of yaw/pitch angles. Then the game would have to select the right angled sound sample.

Alternatively I don't see why someone couldn't write software that would take sound samples and artificially simulate spacial effects like that. I don't think OpenAL and DX/EAX come close to this type of simulation?

parabol - That's called head-related transfer functions (HRTF), and A3D used it before Creative bankrupted Aureal with a legal battle. Best way to play Half-Life was with a Vortex2 sound card.

^ were they implemented well though?

I ask because I've barely heard about any of this before.

Well, most games already support surround sound, wouldn't it be possible to convert these 5.1 channels into stereo, whilst preserving the surround effect, like in the sound clip? Is that what this Vortex2 sound card was supposed to do?

Well, most games already support surround sound

I believe it's a little more complicated than basic surround sound ...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binaural_recording

Yeah, but don't games create surround sound by calculating the point a sound comes from within the virtual environment, and playing it from the most appropriate speaker/volume? If that's the case, I thought it'd be possible to apply the same principle to creating a binaural effect from a virtual environment.

i think we need to see more stuff done with sound in games. i mean you dont reaaly just hear sound directly... if your standing in a corner of a room you would hear the same sound at _least_ four times, once directly and once from each wall and peice of grand your near.

They spend billions of dollars making awsome graphics cards that can render light from every which way... but when it comes to sound we're still pretty much basic unless you start to involve many more speakers.

Do you guys agree?

Scorp - A3D recreated sound reflecting off surfaces (only one bounce though). It really was quite advanced for the time.

ohh wow, i didnt know that! very cool